Fraternal Reunion
by IrishgirlE
Summary: Set after Revelations. When Spencer wakes up in the middle of the night he calls someone that he hasn't spoken to in years.
1. Chapter 1

_**I don't own anything. **_

_**Mentions of past drug use and suicide.**_

Dr. Spencer Reid lay awake staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Tobias and what happened.

He had nearly died. It had made him realise how easy it would all be. To just die, stop living. He wasn't thinking of killing himself but it would be so easy to. Reid shook his head. Annoyed at himself. He had his team to call and ask for help, he had his best friend and he had… Reid shook his head again. After what had happened he realised how much he needed him but over half a decade of not talking. He might not ever want to speak to him.

Slowly he drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~Criminal Minds~~~~~~~~~~

Reid shot up in bed gasping for breath and trying to scream after the nightmare. He didn't even realise he had his phone in hand until it was already ringing.

He prayed that he wouldn't pick up and he prayed that he would.

"Hello" came the groggy voice down the phone.

"Hi." Reid answered immediately.

"Spencer? Is that you?"

"Yeah. I- It's me."

"A-are you okay? Is mom okay? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. Mom is fine. I'm… I'm not okay, though. I… You- I don't know why I called you."

"I do."

"Why?"

"What are you surprised I knew something before the all-knowing-Genius Spencer Reid?"

Despite the terror he felt that brought a smile to his face.

"C'mon man. Why did I call you?" Spencer asked falling into the old, familiar routine.

There was silence down the phone for a minute. "I'm your brother that's why."

"Thanks, Stryke."

"You're welcome, Spencer." Stryker was quiet for another moment. "Where are you?"

"No, man you don't have to-"

"You're my brother, you need me, I think I do."

Spencer gave Stryker his address.

"Okay, it'll take me a little under three hours to get there. You can either get some sleep until I get there or you can set out all the geeky movies you have and we'll watch them together."

Spencer smiled. "I guess I'll see you then."

"I guess you will. Now go grab a half-hours shut eye, genius. Otherwise that over-sized brain of yours will turn to mush."

"Thanks Stryke." Spencer said, in a not entirely sarcastic voice.

"For what, you'd do the same for me?" Stryker asked, picking up on the genuine gratefulness.

"No, thanks for picking up the phone."

Stryker smiled as he pulled out of his driveway. He could probably make it in just over two hours. It was the middle of the night but what Spencer didn't realise was that even after all these years he still knew what it sounded like when he was a minute away from breaking down.

Some people would be annoyed when someone knocks on the door at 3am. But when it's your twin brother who you haven't seen for years…

Spencer smiled tiredly at Stryker.

"Hey."

"You look like crap man. Seriously, I called that Morgan guy, he told me, how are you?"

Spencer shrugged and he tried not to cry when Stryker hugged him.

"It's okay, you know. I won't tell anyone." He whispered in Spencer's ear.

Growing up raising two younger girls meant pushing aside your own problems, and unfortunately Spencer had been the main caretaker.

That opened the flood gates and soon Reid was sobbing brokenly on his brother's shoulder.

"it's okay, it's okay. You're safe now. He's gone. Remember that he's gone. I'm here, your team's there. It's okay."

Spencer took a deep breath telling himself that it was true.

"Thanks for coming." He mumbled.

"Thanks for calling."

Spencer pulled back and looked into eyes that were only a shade off of his own. Stryker smiled that smile that Reid knew all too well as his look of brushing off the fact that he had been about to do something stupid.

"Stryker. When _you're_ gonna do something stupid, call me. When you're feeling lonely or sad or hurt, call me. When you're bored or angry or I don't know, you call me okay? Don't go back down _that _road again."

"I won't if you take your own advice. Now, talk to me. Derek didn't say everything but it sounds pretty bad. Especially when you're alone."

"Yeah, fine. It was… I never realized how much I needed you when that shit happened."

"Pence, Morgan told me this Toby guy, gave you drugs. I'm only gonna ask this once: Do. You. Still. Have. Them?"

"yes. I don't know why I took them, but yes."

Spencer led his brother to the medicine cabinet. He took out the vials and shamefully gave them to him.

"Hey, you didn't take them." Stryker comforted. "Remember that."

Stryker threw the vials away and made Reid swear on their mother's life that he didn't have any more. After that they both sprawled out on the couch and watched the Star Wars movies.


	2. Chapter 2

_**I own nothing but Stryker Reid.**_

The oldest Reid child, with an over average but less than his brother IQ, socially awkward, Yale graduate, former drug addict and a little suicidal Stryker Reid woke up to the persistent knocking of the front door. He got up from his position on the couch and untangled himself from his still sleeping brother. After he checked through the peep hole and then told himself that was stupid, he didn't know Spencer's friends, he opened the door.

"Hello. Who are you?!" Derek demanded.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you too." Stryker joked.

"Who are you? Where's Reid!?"

"Spencer? He's just inside. Asleep, for once."

"Are you his… roommate?" Derek asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to say it.

"No! I'm Stryker Reid. I'm his brother, we're twins. I talked to you last night. I'm – but he's… my brother is straight."

"Oh. I didn't recognise your voice. I'm Agent Derek Morgan." Derek introduced himself, knowing better than to dwell on Stryker telling him he was gay.

Stryker smiled. He moved out of the way. "Do you wanna come inside? I mean you came over for a reason."

Derek was about to say he had to go but Stryker gave him a look. "Fine, I'll come in. I wanted to check up on Reid."

Stryker looked uncomfortable for a second. He lowered his voice and pushed them both outside.

"Look, I don't know if you know this but Spencer took drugs from that guy. I got rid of them… but I'm gonna have to go home eventually. You came down to check up on him so you clearly care, so just watch him for me. He's the only little brother I have who knows why I do what I do and why."

Derek frowned at that but didn't say anything.

"Yeah, I'll watch him and make sure he doesn't start using."

"I shouldn't tell you this but, look this isn't the first time Spencer has done something like this, we both did, so if he needs to call me I need you to make sure he can. If he can't, tell him to call Ethan, he's an old friend of us both who dropped out of college, he went clean. _And _if all else fails," Stryker shoved a tiny piece of paper into Derek's hand. "this is our two little sisters' numbers, call Allie before Tammi because, well she's a psycopath. None of us are really on speaking terms but we're family. Don't tell Pence I told you all this."

"Thanks, I mean… you've really thought about this."

"Spencer called me in the middle of the night, I guess he had a nightmare. I should probably be, I dunno, embarrassed but before Spence called I was…" he pulled up his sleeve and showed Derek a bandage wrapped around his forearm.

"You were going to kill yourself!"

"Yeah it was dumb I know but know… well I can't just leave him to fend for himself can I? I love bein' an older brother."

Derek stared at the stranger who in the short space of ten minutes had come out and just told him he had nearly killed himself.

"Come on in."

Derek smiled at the sight of his best friend. He was sprawled out across the couch with an arm hanging off the couch. His hair was around his head in a halo. His lips were slightly parted and unlike whenever they slept in the same room on cases he wasn't mumbling or moaning and his eyes were still instead of darting around.

"He's usually, like, dreaming. You know, nightmares."

"Yeah." Stryker agreed looking at Derek oddly.

"Oh. We usually share a room when we're on cases, sometimes."

"Which is it, usually or sometimes?" Stryker joked.

"Are you serious?"

"No. But it's probably because we shared a bed as kids and last night, well we shared a couch. Maybe he just isn't used to… not sharing."

Derek stared at him. "So you're saying I should share a bed with him when we're on cases?"

"If you want. I mean, you're his _bestie_ right."

Derek glared at him. "Hey." He greeted softly when he saw Reid blinking blearily up at him.

"Hi" Reid croaked. He cleared his throat and repeated it.

"How are you?" Derek asked awkwardly.

He blinked and yawned. "a little tired. I'm fine, now."

Derek smiled. "Go back to sleep. It's the weekend, Hotch won't call us in on a case just yet." He pulled a blanket off the ground and spread it over him. Spencer made a noise of agreement and rolled over. After a minute he could hear his soft snores.

"Awww." Stryker cooed. "You're besties!"

"Shut up." Derek growled.

"Want some coffee?" Stryker offered.

"Yeah, what did you say your name was?"

Stryker grinned and in a really deep voice said. "Stryker!" then in a normal tone. "You can call me Stryke if you want."

Derek smiled. "So… you're… suicidal?"

"Not anymore." Stryker quickly changed the subject. "What's Spencer like? In the BAU I mean."

"Well he's my best friend and …" Derek began telling Stryker all about his brother.

_The End_

**_The end of my first fic with chapters! If you're wondering Stryker and Spencer are meant to be identical and yes, Stryker is the suicidal brother mentioned in Luck but you don't need to read that._**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm finally finished the story! Sorry this took so long I just could not think of anything to do with this chapter. I'm really sorry for any mistakes I wrote and published this on a train so I might have hit the wrong key. **

**I don't own Criminal Minds or its characters.**

* * *

Stryker and Derek were in the kitchen while Reid slept. Stryker sat on the counter top and Derek sat at the table. They were at a pause in the conversation and it was beginning to feel like it wouldn't start again.

"I gotta say." Stryker said clearing his throat and breaking the silence. "I'm impressed with Spencer. Getting a best friend. He hasn't done that since we were five. Probably hasn't had to."

"Um… you mentioned Reid – Spencer – had drugs? Don't you want to talk to him about that?" Morgan asked.

Stryker smiled bitterly. "We're not a family that talks things out – we just ignore them until its forgotten about or not important anymore." He was serious again. "He might do something like this again though, so watch him. All the Reid men self-destruct – or try to – in some way or other. Our dad drank, I became suicidal, Zach got arrested, Sparx joined a gang – dragged us along – and Spencer nearly turned to drugs to deal.

Stryker laughed at the look of disbelief on Morgan's face. "We're a very dysfunctional family." He explained.

Morgan swallowed trying to take that in.

"So, does Spencer have a girlfriend?" Stryker asked teasingly.

"No." Morgan answered. "At least, I don't think so."

"Yeah." Stryker said sadly. "'Course he doesn't."

"I think he likes JJ. She's on the team."

Stryker smirked. "Let me guess, blond?"

"Yeah."

He chuckled quietly. "Spencer's first crush was a blond too. Lucilia Amelia. Bonded over their weird names I think. They both legally got their names changed to just one name a while back. Lucy Amy and Spency Sparrow, awful nick-names. She was a weird girl. That's probably why they got along so well."

"I didn't think Spencer would have been interested in girls." Morgan said.

Stryker raised an eyebrow.

"He seems like he would have been oblivious to stuff like that."

"Yeah, well Lucy certainly makes an impression. She punched him in the face the first time they met. We were just starting school. Became great friends though."

Morgan laughed. "That _would _leave an impression." He agreed.

"So how does Spencer get on with the rest of your team?" Stryker asked.

"Our team." Morgan corrected. "We're a lot like a family. Hotch and Gideon are like the parents. Spencer is the youngest and I'm the older brother. JJ is like the big sister. Garcia would be Spencer's older sister, and I guess Prentiss too."

"Hmm." Stryker said.

Morgan worried for a minute if he had offended Stryker because he was Spencer's actual family.

"What are Hotch and Gideon like?" Stryker asked.

"Um. Well Hotch looks out for everyone really and Gideon is definitely a father to Reid."

Stryker nodded. "This Gideon good enough to look out for Spencer?" he asked

"yeah, he'll look out for him. And I'll pick up the slack if he doesn't." Morgan promised.

Stryker seemed satisfied. "So the tech girl, Garcia right? Does she and Spencer get along?"

"Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"She sounds a lot like our youngest sister Ally. She's a computer genius too. Ally was definitely Spencer's favourite."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

They lapsed into silence once more.

"They haven't talked properly for years." Stryker admitted.

"Who?" Morgan asked not following.

"Spencer and Ally." Stryker elaborated. "She moved to England."

"To study?"

"Sort of." Stryker was quiet again. "It was my idea to put mom in a home. It was the right thing to do but… the girls were 14 and she was our mom. They were just kids, they didn't…"

"They didn't want to put her away in some facility." Morgan finished.

"It was my idea but… it was Spencer who put her in."

"They havent talked since then?" Morgan said in disbelief.

"Not since the girls were 18, they send birthday cards but that's about it."

Morgan couldn't imagine not talking to his sisters. "If you to weren't talking then who did Reid spend the holidays with?" he pictured Reid all alone in his apartment.

"Ethan and Lucy. Sometimes Zach and Sparx. We don't really celebrate Christmas. Halloween is more our thing."

"Does he keep in touch with Lucy then?"

"Yeah, Lucy, Ethan, pretty much every one of our friends."

"I bet you $5 I can get Spencer to call Ally within a year." Morgan said after a minute."

Stryker thought for a moment. "$10, if you can also get him to mention Lucy."

"Deal."

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**I really hope you enjoyed this story. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. I hope you all had a great Christmas and I hope everyone enjoys their New Year.**


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